Chapter 203: Another Mid-Autumn Festival

It is nearly the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The moon is rounder night by night.

The little girl is lying prone at the desk in her room, diligently doing her homework; she has adjusted her chair quite high, her two feet swinging back and forth unconsciously.

Suddenly, her Mobile Phone vibrates.

The little girl persists in finishing the problem before turning her head to look.

It is a message in "Jade Capital Ghoul".

Brother-in-law: Mid-Autumn is coming soon.

Brother-in-law: Come vote.

Brother-in-law's sister: What vote?

Brother-in-law: On the day of Mid-Autumn, should we have a barbecue in the yard, or go to the National Comprehensive University to watch the evening gala performance?

Brother-in-law's sister: I cast one vote for barbecue!

Brother-in-law's sister: What is there to see at the gala?

Brother-in-law: You've watched it for five years, so of course you'd think that.

Brother-in-law's sister: You can watch the replay later.

Brother-in-law: What about the others?

The little girl hurriedly puts down her pen to type.

Ning Ji: Barbecue.

Brother-in-law: What about Qingqing?

Sister: Abstain.

Sister: Zhang Suannai casts one vote for barbecue.

Brother-in-law: Alright.

Brother-in-law: Then it's settled; on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, we will have a barbecue in the yard. If you want to eat anything, you can say so in advance so I can prepare.

Sister: Something sour and spicy.

Brother-in-law's sister: Grilled sweet potato skin!!

Ning Ji: Potato slices, spiral potatoes.

Brother-in-law: Alright.

Brother-in-law: What are you all doing?

Brother-in-law's sister: Getting ready to sleep.

Sister: Reading.

Ning Ji: Doing homework.

The little girl hesitates for a moment, then types again, making the keyboard click and clack.

Ning Ji: Sister has been acting so strange lately.

Brother-in-law: What's wrong?

Sister:?

Sister: If you dare to say it, you're done for.

Brother-in-law: Don't you dare bully Xiaoxiao!!! Do you hear me?

Brother-in-law's sister: Wow, brother is so tough!

Brother-in-law's sister: Xiaoxiao, tell us, tell us, I'm so curious.

The little girl holds her Mobile Phone and falls into hesitation.

Sister is not someone who holds grudges; Sister's threats are always carried out on the spot.

She does not want to get beaten.

But this is a rare opportunity to roast Sister.

The little girl looks left and right, puts down her Mobile Phone, gets up to close the room door and the balcony door, locks them tight, and only then sits back down.

Ning Ji: Yesterday while eating, Sister was drinking soup and used her tongue to lick it.

Brother-in-law: /That's a bit too much.

Brother-in-law's sister: /Even the little dried fish is in Surprise.

The little girl hears rapidly approaching footsteps, and then her room door is knocked on, the sound very rough.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The little girl only turns her head to glance at the door, then quickly retracts her gaze and continues looking at her Mobile Phone.

Brother-in-law: Caught internet rabies.

Brother-in-law's sister: You can find me for medicine, 20% off.

"Bang! Bang!"

"Click, click..."

The little girl can already feel the sound coming from the lock cylinder.

"It's over..."

Sister is using Spirit Power to crack the lock cylinder.

The little girl is not panicked, however; she turns her head to look at the balcony door, secretly pondering to herself—

Her own balcony and the living room balcony are connected, and at the same time, her room door is very close to the Dormitory door. Sister is now outside the room door; she only needs to sneak onto the balcony when Sister opens the door, or even circle into the living room to hide, listening carefully to the movements. Once Sister opens the door and enters the room, she can take advantage of the fact that Sister isn't paying attention to run out of the Dormitory from the living room, and come back when she's itching for a beating again.

"!"

The little girl thinks she is too smart.

So she quietly moved her chair, without making any sound, while standing up and tiptoeing toward the balcony door.

"Click..."

It was almost imperceptible.

The little girl turned her head to look at the room door.

The lock cylinder was still clicking.

Very good, her sister was still outside the room door.

The little girl opened the door and went out onto the balcony, closed the balcony door behind her, and ran headlong toward the living room.

Just as she ran into the living room, it suddenly went dark before her eyes.

"Thump~"

The little girl ran head-on into her sister.

The recoil made her involuntarily step back twice, nearly falling to the ground; after finally steadying herself, she looked up to see her sister's face covered in frost, while the sound of knocking continued to come from her own room door.

"..."

The little girl looked up at her sister, was silent for a few seconds, walked around her, and poked her head out to look.

It was Zhang Suannai.

Zhang Suannai was knocking on the door while turning her head to look at her, appearing very surprised: "Oh! You came out? Oh wow! Your sister just made a bet with me, saying where you would come out from if I came here to knock on the door, and I lost the bet again!"

The little girl:...

Looking back at her sister, she was silent for a moment, then turned and ran.

But just as she took a step, she was grabbed by the back of her neck by her sister.

Two seconds later—

The little girl was pinned to the sofa by her sister, her face pressed tightly against the sofa; she looked at the floor tiles with lifeless eyes, feeling her sister sitting on her and munching on an apple.

The apple seemed very delicious, juicy and crisp.

Her sister was so heavy.

But she said nothing; whenever her eyes felt dry, she would blink, feeling the passage of time, and every once in a while, she would struggle symbolically, waving her hand to see if she could hit her sister and thereby break free. If she could break free, she would; if she couldn't, so be it.

Buddhist-style struggling, salted-fish resistance.

Zhang Suannai stood to the side, looking dazed and at a loss.

Persuading wasn't right, and not persuading wasn't right either.

Not until an apple was finished did Ning Qing stand up and walk back to the room.

Zhang Suannai saw the little girl quickly flip over and climb up, tidying her clothes and hair slightly as if nothing had happened; Zhang Suannai couldn't help but blink her eyes and curiously leaned over to ask:

"Does your sister often hit you?"

"..." The little girl glanced at her, also grabbed an apple, and said honestly, "When she hits often, she hits often; when she hits less, she hits occasionally."

"Has she hit you since you were little?"

"She has hit me since I was little."

"Then doesn't your brother-in-law care?"

"?"

"Help you, break up the fight, or something?"

"He does." The little girl said with a serious face, "Brother-in-law cheers me on."

"..."

"Crunch!"

The little girl munched on the apple; it was indeed very delicious.

Chen Shu came out from the mountain forest behind Yuan'an Temple.

Now his Small Blazing Sun Art could be considered successfully mastered; at the very least, he could use it as soon as he tried, and it wouldn't misfire. In this process, he had also become familiar with some details that required attention for the Small Blazing Sun Art; to be safe, after practicing for a few more days, he could begin preparing to integrate it into the Thousand Machine Art.

It was a pity that starting today, many foreign heads of state and cultivation experts were arriving in Yujing, and Yujing had begun martial law.

The Daoist of Yuan'an Temple had specifically come to inform him that he could no longer test the Small Blazing Sun Art here.

It didn't matter; Chen Shu wasn't in a hurry.

Even without martial law, he would have stopped to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival these few days anyway.

Compared to cultivation, life was more important.

Chen Shu started making Mooncake again.

This year he planned to make two flavors: one was traditional Mooncake, made with lotus seed paste and egg yolk filling. The other was a new style of Mooncake, using Chinese yam paste for the skin and various fruits for the filling inside, and it wasn't baked, but steamed; in fact, it was more like a dessert that looked like a Mooncake.

As for the quantity, he would make as many as possible.

Since he had to make them anyway, making more wouldn't be any more troublesome, and he could gain more sense of accomplishment.

Chen Shu also called over two tools.

He called it: letting them have more sense of participation.

The two tools were very excited.

Thus, Chen Shu was only responsible for some key technical work; as for those troublesome and time-consuming chores, such as pressing the molds, brushing egg wash, and putting them in the oven, he left them all to them to do. The two not only did it extremely seriously but also enjoyed it.

Batch after batch of Mooncake came out of the oven.

The fifteenth of the eighth month, Mid-Autumn Festival.

Chen Shu began delivering Mooncake all over Yujing.

Delivering to teachers;

Delivering to group members;

Sent to the class monitor;

Sent to Deacon He;

He didn't even let Senior Brother Zhang Yunyan off.

He had made far too much, couldn't finish sending it all out, and didn't want to waste it, so he also took a lot for Jiang Lai and Meng Chunqiu, letting them take it to give to others.

Finally, with one bag left, Chen Shu carried it out the door.

After meeting up with Qingqing and Xiaoxiao, they went to the supermarket together.

Chen Shu and Qingqing discussed and selected items as they went, like an old married couple during the holidays, preparing to host guests and discussing dishes. Xiaoxiao, meanwhile, transformed into an emotionless cart-pushing machine, following behind them.

Returning to the courtyard, the three sat together again and began preparing the barbecue ingredients for tonight.

Qingqing washed the vegetables.

Chen Shu used his Cutting Technique.

The little girl then skewered them with wooden sticks.

The dishes they prepared were very rich.

There were more vegetable dishes, including about twenty skewers of potato slices, two skewers of Whirlwind Potato Tower—which was the spiral potato the little girl wanted—and several skewers of baby potatoes. Besides potatoes, there were lotus root slices, oyster mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, sweet potato starch sheets, marinated tofu skin, cauliflower, and konjac, and they also bought two large eggplants.

Anyway, they saw them in the supermarket, felt they quite liked eating them, so they bought them.

Meat dishes included beef skewers, lamb skewers, pork belly slices, pig skin, quail eggs, Sausage, marinated pig trotters, pork ribs, squid tentacles, scallops, and oysters.

They also bought some cheap frozen goods that Chen Banxia hadn't ordered but loved to eat, which weren't vegetable dishes, but which Chen Shu didn't want to treat as meat dishes either, such as fish tofu, fish balls, and the like.

It was hard to come by a holiday, and since they were having a barbecue at home with guests coming, naturally they had to prepare things richly and do it well.

With so many varieties, cleaning up was troublesome.

It would take an entire afternoon.

Fortunately, it wouldn't be boring.

The people truly most suitable to be with are those with whom you can just sit together doing nothing, or with whom even the most boring things become interesting just by being together.

Night finally fell.

A full moon appeared on the horizon, just crossing the roof opposite, obscured a little by the corner of the tiles.

Chen Banxia and Zhang Suannai arrived.

The two had actually made an appointment; Zhang Suannai arrived first, waited for Chen Banxia at the entrance of the residential complex for ten minutes or so, and then they teamed up to come in together.

It was like little children going to school, needing to enter the campus together.

Chen Banxia had brought two more bottles of wine.

Zhang Suannai remained full of energy, running up and down the moment she arrived, looking here and peering there, calling out loudly from time to time.

Smoke rose in the courtyard, very visible under the moonlight.

Chen Shu first took some skewers to grill and told the little girl to take the Mooncake she had made for them to eat. Zhang Suannai also brought a Mooncake, emphasizing repeatedly that it was a top-tier sect-limited edition Mooncake, attempting to make the others feel honored by it.

Plus Taozi running all over the ground...

The small courtyard suddenly became lively.

Chen Shu watched while doing the work of a barbecue chef, the corners of his mouth curling into an arc unconsciously.

"Ready! Come and get it!"

"Is it ready? I'm coming!" Chen Banxia ran over.

"I'm coming too!" Zhang Suannai followed closely behind, "I want to grill later too!"

"Take it."

Chen Shu put most of the grilled skewers onto an iron plate and handed it to them, leaving a few on the very edge of the grill for himself and Qingqing to eat, and said to Chen Banxia, "You eat first, I'll grill the sweet potato starch sheets you wanted in a moment."

"What is grilled sweet potato starch sheets?" Zhang Suannai asked.

"You'll know in a moment!" Chen Banxia explained to her newly made little sister, "Anyway, it's super-duper delicious!"

"Alrighty!"

The two carried the food to the stone table nearby and started eating. Chen Shu saw the two of them pouring wine and couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth, then picked up a skewer of tofu skin stuffed with many diced pickled radishes in the middle, handed it to Qingqing beside him, and grinned at her.

Qingqing's expression was indifferent.